The controversial journalistic analysis of the mentality that fostered the Holocaust, from the author of The Origins of Totalitarianism Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt’s postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative—an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling (and unsettled) issues of the twentieth century.

"It is impressive to see an edited collection in which such a high intellectual standard is maintained throughout... I learned things from almost every one of these chapters."--Craig Calhoun, author of Critical Social Theory

Discusses coverage of the Eichmann trial in 1961 by the German press. There was a feeling of uncertainty and helplessness amongst German journalists regarding their capacity to deal with the trial without damaging the reputation of Germany throughout the world, as well as a reluctance to cope with German guilt. As the trial progressed, however, there was more of a willingness to confront the dark German past. Unlike the FRG, the DDR did not deal with the topic at that time but only accused West Germany of serving as a refuge for former Nazis. Argues that the capture of Eichmann and the trial proceedings were important building blocks for Germany's coming to terms with the past. Furthermore, during the 1950s-60s there was an evolution from refusal of remembrance, through an integrated commemoration policy, to coping with the Nazi crimes and the resulting responsibiltiy and liability. The Eichmann trial was one of the stimuli which led to this trend.

A New York Times Notable Book of 2014 Smuggled out of Europe after the collapse of Germany, Eichmann managed to live a peaceful and active exile in Argentina for years before his capture by the Mossad. Though once widely known by nicknames such as 'Manager of the Holocaust', he was able to portray himself, from the defendant's box in Jerusalem in 1960, as an overworked bureaucrat following orders – no more, he said, than 'just a small cog in Adolf Hitler's extermination machine'. How was this carefully crafted obfuscation possible? How did a principal architect of the Final Solution manage to disappear? How had he occupied himself in hiding? Drawing upon an astounding trove of newly discovered documentation, Stangneth gives us a chilling portrait not of a reclusive, taciturn war criminal on the run, but of a highly skilled social manipulator with an inexhaustible ability to reinvent himself, an unrepentant murderer eager for acolytes to discuss past glories and vigorously planning future goals.